"Huh? Princess Eva is waiting for me?" Alex exclaimed. He jumped onto his bed and looked at Blake, who was eyeing him back with irritation, arms folded tightly before his chest, and nodded. "Yes, she has been waiting for you for more than ten minutes now," Blake replied, his voice rising with each syllable as though Alex's loud exclaimed voice had offended him too much.
Alex jumped from the bed and ran toward the door without paying any more attention to Blake, though as Alex dashed past, his eyes snagged for just a moment on Leo, who was still resting in his bed with his head turned toward Alex.
Alex shoved the unnecessary distraction aside and quickly reached the door, stopping just before it. He adjusted his hair by running both hands back through it, rubbed the corners of his eyes to clear away any sleep, and smoothed down his pajamas with a swift pass of his palms. His hands stilled and he stood there a moment, deliberating whether to return to his wardrobe and change his clothes or to simply open the door. He chose the latter. It was not as though she had never seen him in his pajamas before. After satisfying himself that he looked at least somewhat presentable, he put his hand on the doorknob and, with a soft click, opened the door.
Standing before him with her hands planted on her waist was Princess Eva. She immediately seized his wrist and pulled him out into the hallway, then shut the door firmly behind them. It had all happened so suddenly, and now Alex stood blinking in the corridor. He let out a quiet breath of relief upon finding the hallway empty, because the sight of a princess hauling a boy out of his room at this hour would have caused no small amount of commotion. Blake and Leo had already witnessed it, of course, but from what Alex had gathered of their attitudes and personalities, neither of them struck him as the sort to gossip or spread rumours lest they wanted to get in trouble.
"Are you alright?" Princess Eva's voice drew Alex out from his spiraling thoughts and he looked at her properly. Her brows were knitted together and she was studying him with visible nervousness, her eyes moving from his face downward and back again.
"Everything's fine, Princess," Alex replied, and he was just about to ask what had brought her here so early in the morning but she spoke before a single word could leave his lips.
"You don't have to lie to me, Alex." Princess Eva's tone was low and firm, and her dark gaze deepened. "I heard everything from the principal about you being bullied by Eldric and about their suspension."
Alex gave a small, careful nod of his head. Was the principal going around the academy telling everyone, or what? Well, she was part of the student council, so it was only natural that she would be informed. He was still musing on this when a soft hand closed around his wrist once again.
"Let me check if you are still hurt. Shouldn't you be resting in the infirmary, Alex?" Princess Eva looked genuinely worried. She checked his pulse with two fingers, then pushed up his pajama sleeve to inspect his arm for any injuries.
"I am alright," Alex said gently, slowly pulling his hand back rather than jerking it away. Princess Eva folded her arms before her chest and fixed him with a look. "Then why didn't you tell me they were bullying you?" she demanded, her eyes sharp and unrelenting. The worried softness of a moment ago had shifted into something more like controlled anger.
Alex could not very well tell her the truth outright, that he had been afraid of what would happen if he did. If Eldric had found out Alex had told her everything, Eldric would only have created more trouble for both of them. Eldric had made that threat quite explicitly, telling Alex threateningly to keep his mouth shut if he did not want harm coming to the princess. Eldric could not have touched her physically, perhaps, but with the group he kept around him, he could have easily set rumours in motion that would have created quite a ruckus for her. And so Alex had kept quiet about it.
"Alex." Her commanding stare softened once more and became saturated with worry again. She seemed to have drawn her own conclusions about why he had not told her, likely assuming that Eldric had threatened him into silence, which was not entirely wrong, only not the whole picture either.
"I didn't tell you because I didn't want to trouble you," Alex said at last, his voice quieter now, and his eyes drifted from her face to her dark gaze and back. "And, well." His lips pressed together briefly. "We had only just spoken again after so long, and I didn't want to bring the mood down." His lips trembled slightly as he watched her bite her lower lip hard.
Whether she had already suspected the reason or had only just now understood it, her expression shifted into sadness. The threat from Eldric had been part of it, yes, but more than anything Alex simply had not wanted to make her worry. She already had more than enough things filling her plates due to her being an imperial princess and due to her responsibilities that came with being a part of the student council.
"Don't worry about it," she said softly. She raised her right hand and reached toward his cheek, but stopped short and let her palm come to rest at his shoulder instead. "I am going to speak with Lucian about it. And from what I understand, he is not particularly enthusiastic about this engagement either." She looked at him with a kind of fond steadiness, holding his azure eyes with hers. "From everything I have heard about him, he despises his father, and this engagement was forced upon him just as it was forced upon me."
The tension in Alex's shoulders eased somewhat at that. Though no sooner had the relief begun to settle in than it was already being returned back once again with a fresh wave of questions. Would Lucian actually go along with dissolving the engagement so easily? And even if he were willing, would the princess's father and Lucian's father simply stand aside and allow their children to undo it on their own terms? The small comfort Alex had allowed himself evaporated as quickly as it had come, and in its place rose the same tangled knot of worry as before. He had the strange and helpless urge to laugh at the absurdity of it all.
"Oh, you know I have levelled up and now I am level 25," Alex said, deliberately steering the conversation elsewhere and pulling a smile onto his face. Then, from somewhere along the hallway, came the click of a door. Alex instinctively wrapped his hand around Princess Eva's and tugged her gently forward. "Let's go outside," he said, glancing at her, and she nodded without hesitation. And just as suddenly he had wrapped his hand around hers, his gaze dropped to his pajamas.
"But I am still in my pajamas."
"That only makes it more fun," Princess Eva laughed, and rather than him leading her, she gave him a firm push forward and the two of them broke into a run, turning quickly at the end of the hallway and clattering down the stairs together.
***
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